CO Consults at Fashion SVP: How To Make Commercially Viable Progress On Sustainability Targets
“There is a profound and disruptive shift happening in business” according to Mike Barry, ex Director of Sustainability at Marks & Spencer in a CO Consults panel discussion at Fashion SVP London.
Speaking to a packed room, Barry, alongside fellow CO Consults experts Andy Jackson, formerly Global Head of Design for F&F, Rachel Fortune, stylist and founder of the Sustainable Lifestyle Awards and CO Director of Impact Clare Lissaman discussed how businesses can meet their sustainability targets in commercially viable ways.
Five key things businesses for businesses to do emerged from the conversation:
1. Know your why
When you understand and are clear as a business why you want, and need, to have sustainability targets then it becomes much easier to invest now for the future; and then to be able to plan clearly on what you need to achieve and how you will achieve it. If you just jump in to the latter then purely commercial imperatives tend to win out over sustainable when it comes to difficult decisions around costs and pricing.
Use the CO Sustainability Roadmap Toolkit to help identify your why (and your what and how)
2. Invest in people who ‘get it’
Changing mindsets is key to future fit businesses that can marry sustainable and the commercial. Hire people who have a desire and a knowledge on how to do fashion sustainably as well as commercial skills. Train staff in sustainability.
3. Do one thing well today
Don’t panic about not being able to do everything. Research, make sensible choices, compromise where necessary but have a plan to improve.
4. Collaborate
Whether your business is huge or small the panel were clear that collaboration with others is the only way to meet sustainability targets in a commercially viable way, whether that be through working through common issues in supply chains together or partnering to source sustainable materials.
Use the CO platform to find individuals and businesses with whom you share common objectives. It’s free to join.
5. Converse
There was a strong sense from both panel and audience that people, whether customers or other stakeholders, now really want to have conversations about sustainability. Make the most of that to engage, learn and communicate.
CO Consults provides strategic consultancy to embed sustainability and ethical trading into fashion businesses. We do this for brands and designers, retailers and suppliers.
Contact Lauren Neilson on lauren@commonobjective.co to find out more.